


Becoming Red

by lovecanbesostrange



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 02:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovecanbesostrange/pseuds/lovecanbesostrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time there was a little girl living in a small village. She was raised by her grandmother, because her parents died when she was very young. At least that was what she was left to believe. / A look at Red's life from childhood to the night she found out her own secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Becoming Red

Once upon a time there was a little girl living in a small village. She was raised by her grandmother, because her parents died when she was very young. At least that was what she was left to believe.

She was asleep the night her mother tried to take her out of her little bed to leave this life behind. She was too young to remember how she stired when her grandmother came in, a crossbow at the ready. Threatening her own daughter.

“You can go, but I will not let you take my grandchild. She will have a normal life and not be raised like an animal!”

The girl’s mother knew better than to challenge that. One last time she leaned down, kissed her daughter on her cheek and said her goodbye.

“Come find me when the moon calls to you. I love you.”

But the girl never really heard this message. And she never knew why she felt longing every night the sky was clear enough to let moonlight shine upon her.

Growing up without parents was what she knew and it didn’t matter much to her. Her grandmother loved her very much and gave her all she needed. If only the other children in the village wouldn’t always remind her that she was different.

Except one boy, about her age. His name was Peter and he became an important part of the girl’s life. Maybe even the most important, but that conflict didn’t start for years.

The girl was always tall for her age, a bit faster and a bit stronger than all of the other girls. Peter was the only one who didn’t mind, for he liked competing with her. They raced against each other, tried to climb the trees other children deemed too unsafe and pushed each other to their limits.

When Peter’s father taught him how to use a bow and arrow, he took it on himself to teach the girl. They spent many hours in the woods, learning how to track animals and what to do to survive.

The grandmother was worried at first, but also proud when Peter and the girl proved to be efficient hunters and shot a deer.Winter always started early and the snow lasted well into spring. There never was a lot of time to grow anything and life wasn’t easy.

The girl didn’t shy away from the tasks she needed to do. She was an eager helper, taking in everything new and wanting to always learn more. She started to dream of a life far away. Going on adventures, exploring the world.

One night after turning 13 the girl had a terrible dream. It was filled with screams of dying men and a monstrous howl. When she woke up she was sitting outside in the snow. Her grandmother held her in her arms, with tears in her eyes. The girl was confused, a metallic taste in her mouth.

Her grandmother kept her from turning around and took her back to their cabin as the dawn broke. Later that day the girl wasn’t even sure if she had really been out there or if that had been part of the dream as well.

Peter told her there had been gruesome murders. Blood and guts ripped out by sharp teeth and coloring the snow a grim shade of red. It was horrible and the girl was sure she couldn’t have been out.

The following night her grandmother prepared an early dinner. The girl thought she was nervous, because whatever had killed the men was still out there. It was better to stay inside and lock the cabin up.

Dinner tasted a bit different, but the girl didn’t know she was drugged into a deep sleep. And still her grandmother had to fight of tooth and claw that night, keeping them inside, where nobody else could get hurt.

The next week was a happy one for the girl, because she was allowed to stay a few days with Peter and his family. Her grandmother had to travel, but kept to herself what exactly she was doing. Why should the girl question that? Especially when she was gifted a new cloak upon her return.

The cloak was a bit too big, but another year or maybe two and she would fully grow into it. The fabric felt smooth and heavy at the same time. The hood kept her safe and warm. And the bright and shining red was the most beautiful colour the girl had ever seen.

She wore it everyday. Because her grandmother demanded it and because she could pretend to be somebody else for a while. It was such a valuable piece of clothing and made her dream of the world beyond the village even more true.

Peter was the first one to say it. One day he greeted her not by her name, but by calling her the colour that was hers alone in these borders - Red.

At first the girl was confused, then she wanted it to be special, that only Peter could call her that. But soon everybody did and it became her identity. Her given name fading with each day that she was known as Red.

The older Red grew, the more she wished for leaving the village. She didn’t want to leave her grandmother, but there had to be something bigger waiting for her. Hopes, dreams, love, a life.

But her grandmother grew stricter the more she talked about it. The monster that had once crawled into her nightmare was haunting the village from time to time. Red wanted to escape it, but her grandmother said there were even more dangers out there. And this one was predictable.

Those nights in the month were soon known as wolfstime. And every morning waking up was unsettling. That moments of not knowing whether new victims had fallen prey to the wolf or not. Fear hung in the air all too often. And protecting cattle and sheep became as dangerous as it was necessary for the village to feed the people.

Red and Peter made plans to one day escape this routine. They started to discover each other in new ways. Maybe love was a thing Red didn’t have to search for in faraway places. Her grandmother didn’t approve of him, even though Peter trained to become a respectable blacksmith.

Red liked to see him grow. She only feared he would outgrow her soon, but he always came back to her window, telling her about his day. And they would trade kisses hidden in the dark, promising each other a better tomorrow.

The night the village grew so tired that they formed a hunting party to catch the wolf once and for all, was the time everything changed. Red was excited. If the wolf could be found and killed, she would gain her freedom.

There was a newfound strength in Red. A determination to do things on her own. She had found another lost soul like herself in her shed and set out to use all her skills of tracking and hunting to kill the beast by day.

It was the most exciting day of Red’s life. And it turned into the night she could never forget. The dreams of screams and blood were all too real and Red found out that she was the wolf. Her price for finding out its true nature was her love. Peter’s life was taken, because the truth had been concealed by the cloak.

Finding the wolf was what freed Red from her caged life in the village. But she could never outrun the beast within.


End file.
